<![CDATA[CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday had arrested a resident of Chennai for plotting to recruit members for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to carry out attacks in Tamil Nadu on behalf of the militant group. An investigating officer told Shakul Hameed, of S S Puram in Otteri, north Chennai, in 2015 made an abortive attempt to travel to Syria to join ISIS as a foot soldier. The agency named Hameed, in his mid-thirties, accused No. 3 in an FIR it registered in Delhi in January. The FIR named Haja Fakkurudeen, a Singapore citizen of Indian origin and native of Cuddalore district, accused No. 1. The NIA started to unravel the plot by ISIS operatives to recruit members after arresting Fakkurudeen in Delhi in January. Hameed was the second person that NIA arrested in Chennai in connection with the case in less than four days. NIA officers on Friday arrested Khaja Moideen alias Abdullah Muthalif, a resident of Kollumedu in Cuddalore district and accused No. 2 in the agency's FIR. Muthalif was already in prison, with the Ambattur police having arrested him in Chennai in July 2014 in their probe of the murder of Hindu Munnani leader K P S Suresh Kumar. NIA officers issued an arrest warrant for him through prisons officials in the city. A gang had hacked to death Suresh Kumar, secretary of the Hindu Munnani's Tiruvallur district unit, in Ambattur Industrial Estate on June 18. He will be produced before the NIA special court for bomb blast cases in Poonamallee in Chennai and seek further custody to question him in connection with the case, the agency would move the special court to seek custody of Muthalif too. Hameed obtained an MBA from a college in Chennai's suburbs. Hameed admitted during interrogation to having tried to travel to IS-controlled territory in Syria via Turkey in August, 2015,.Turkish authorities intercepted Hameed and deported him to India. The prime suspect in the case, Fakkurudeen, travelled with his family to Syria to join IS in January 2014. He returned India twice between November 2013 and January 2014, during which time he held meetings in various places in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with the intention of recruiting members for IS. The NIA probe revealed that Fakkrudeen met Muthalif, Hameed and others in pursuance of the conspiracy . After arresting him, NIA officers in Delhi registered a case against Fakkrudeen and eight co-conspirators on January 26 under IPC Sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and Sections 17, 18, 18-B, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Investigations revealed that the suspects raised funds for IS and received money from the group, organised meetings, recruited and facilitated the travel of people to Syria to join IS.]]>